Fearful and Wonderful

It seems like Andy and I have lately been consumed with the physical, spending a lot of time, attention and money on these perishable bodies. I am still dealing with the after effects of my bout with poison ivy. The prednasone and antibiotic helped, but several weeks ago I developed numbness in the ends of my 2 fingers (pointer & tall man) on my right hand. They are also discolored and look purplish like they are bruised. In my research on poison ivy, I've discovered that the reaction can include numbness. I'm never quite sure about calling the doctor. If I call, am I being a hypocondiac? If I don't call, will it get worse until it's harder to treat? So I called and made an appointment. My appointment was this morning and the doctor was fascinated by my condition, but didn't seem to offer any suggestions on how to improve my situation. He ordered lab work done and said to let him know if I haven't improved in a week.

On the other hand, my back has been feeling better. So was that as a result of the back exercises I'm doing? Or did the prednasone help? Or was it the hyaluronic acid with chondroitin sulfate that Christy told me to start taking? Or maybe all things combined are giving me relief. Whatever - I'm grateful.

When I first came down with the poison ivy reaction, Andy developed a severe cold, with lots of congestion and coughing. He finally had to go to the doctor because it just wasn't going away. It seemed to last longer than most colds do. Then because prednasone suppresses the immune system, I was vulnerable and caught the cold, too. It was a doozy! I'm finally feeling better from that, but still coughing now and then.

This past weekend, Andy woke up in the middle of Friday night throwing up and that lasted till morning. He was pretty weak and spent the day cloistered in the bedroom. On Sunday morning, he was still feeling nauseous and because he hadn't eaten in a while, felt he needed to go the Emergency Room to get some medical help. It's a good thing he did, because there were several things going on. They first told him there was internal bleeding, although not sure where that was coming from or what they meant by that. A CT scan was done, as well as a few other tests. He was given some fluids, and anti-nausea medication as well. Fortunately, he didn't have to be admitted, but the diagnosis was a urinary tract infection. There were probably some other things going on including: after effects from the colonoscopy he had on Wednesday and possibly a stomach virus, too. Poor guy!

All these physical issues reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5:4: For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

In spite of not feeling so well, we still had things going on. Two weekends ago, on March 25-27, I went to Lancaster County for our church's women's retreat. The speaker was excellent and we had a good time, but it really wasn't the best time for me to be away. My cold was at its worst right then and I was still itching from the poison ivy, making it hard to sleep. I really needed more sleep than usual that weekend, but didn't get it. We got a lot of free time on Saturday afternoon, so after lunch, I drove over to see Amy, Ricky and kids. I held Katy most of the time I was there and enjoyed seeing everyone and visiting with them.

On April 1, Christy and Christian were scheduled to go to a George Winston concert, leaving all 4 kids with us overnight and into Saturday. I told Dawn she could bring Kira over on Saturday morning because she loves being with all the kids. I left work early on Friday afternoon, the kids arrived around 2:45. We were able to play a little, then when Andy got home from work, I made barbeque chicken pizza and Caesar's salad for dinner. Everyone was happy with that meal and ate well. After dinner we watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie, then had some ice cream, then watched another episode of Little House, before getting ready for bed. Bed time was a lot of fun. We fixed up the room upstairs for the kids.

Grace & Aiden slept on the queen size futon and Naomi and Asher slept in sleeping bags on the floor. I read some Uncle Remus stories to the kids to get them in the sleepy mode (which didn't really work because they kept asking for one more story...). Then Andy took over and started making up stories but was so silly, the kids were giggling and laughing so hard - forget the sleepy mode!
I slept upstairs in the other room so that I could be near the kids. When I came downstairs in the morning, I discovered Andy had been up nearly all night throwing up. That was disappointing for him, as well as the kids. The first thing they asked when they got up was, "Where's Poppop?" How sad that they couldn't even see him, let alone play and wrestle with him.

I fixed blueberry pancakes for breakfast with Grace's help. She is a joy to have around. I would have been happy to do everything myself, but she just anticipated what I needed and jumped right in to help. She set the table without my telling her to, she helped mix up the batter, and she also turned the pancakes on the grill.

Kira arrived around 8:30 and then I didn't see much of the kids anymore. They played outside quite a bit. The weather was cool but quite nice.Then Christian and Christy came - a lot earlier than expected. We had originally said they would be back after lunch, but Christian hurt his knee on Friday night and was in a good deal of pain. So they thought they should get him home so he could visit the ER. When they got here, the kids were playing so well, we took some time to visit and just relax together.

But I still got to have Kira until about 12:00 noon. We filled up the bird feeders, took a letter to the mailbox and read some books together.

So it's been pretty eventful recently. Never a dull moment!

I've been amazed at the way our bodies are made. Even though we suffer at times and life can seem fragile, we are pretty resilient, too. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. His works are wonderful, I know that full well! (Psalm 139:14)